Scottish Executive

Arts

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received from the tapestry workshop, Dovecot Studios, following the withdrawal of financial support by the Bute family.

Allan Wilson: None directly. A constituent’s letter on the matter has been forwarded to me by her MSP.

Arts

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what economic and cultural assessment it has made of the work of Dovecot Studios and what plans it has to assist the studio to prevent its closure following the withdrawal of financial support from the Bute family.

Allan Wilson: None. Support for small private enterprises and artistic or cultural projects should be sought from Local Enterprise Companies and the Scottish Arts Council respectively.

Central Heating

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3221 by Jackie Baillie on 29 March 2001, how many interim leaflets on its central heating scheme have been distributed in the Scottish Borders Council area and how it plans to further publicise the scheme in this area.

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3221 by Jackie Baillie on 29 March 2001, how many interim leaflets on its central heating scheme have been distributed in the Orkney Islands Council area and how it plans to further publicise the scheme in this area.

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3221 by Jackie Baillie on 29 March 2001, how many interim leaflets on its central heating scheme have been distributed in the Aberdeen City Council area and how it plans to further publicise the scheme in this area.

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3221 by Jackie Baillie on 29 March 2001, how many interim leaflets on its central heating scheme have been distributed in the Shetland Islands Council area and how it plans to further publicise the scheme in this area.

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-3221 by Jackie Baillie on 29 March 2001, how many interim leaflets on its central heating scheme have been distributed in the Dumfries and Galloway Council area and how it plans to further publicise the scheme in this area.

Fiona Hyslop (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to S1O-3221 by Jackie Baillie on 29 March 2001, how many interim leaflets on its central heating scheme have been distributed in the Aberdeenshire Council area and how it plans to further publicise the scheme in this area.

Jackie Baillie: I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-14987 on 30 April 2001.

Education

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial assistance it gave to St Mary’s Music School in (a) 2000-01 and (b) 1999-2000, and what assistance it will give in 2001-02.

Mr Jack McConnell: The Scottish Executive gave St Mary’s Music School £610,900 in the 1999-2000 school session through the aided places scheme. The cost of the scheme in the 2000-01 school session is estimated at £626,700 (the final claim has yet to be received and the final amount will depend on the level of parental contribution). We do not yet know what the allocation will be for 2001-02 school session because decisions about the level of fee-capping have not yet been taken (the final amount will also depend on the level of parental contribution made).

Education

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to continue support for St Mary’s Music School as a centre of excellence in musical education.

Mr Jack McConnell: We support the work the school does in promoting and nurturing musical excellence in our young people and plan to continue to provide it with substantial investment.

Education

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with St Mary’s Music School about the number of places it supports at the school and what response it will make to its request for additional places in 2001 and in subsequent years.

Mr Jack McConnell: Officials have had two meetings with St Mary’s Music School at which this issue was discussed. Ministers decided, after full consideration of the school’s case, that an increase in the number of aided places at the school was not a priority for funding at this time.

European Funding

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that businesses in Dumfries and Galloway are aware of, and able to take advantage of, any assistance available to them from the projects in the south of Scotland receiving the European Structural Fund grants announced on 5 April 2001.

Peter Peacock: Businesses benefit from the structural funds through participation in projects and schemes operated by partner bodies, rather than by applying directly.

  The South of Scotland European Partnership is working closely with partner bodies, including the local enterprise companies and the local authorities, who have responsibility for developing, implementing and promoting programmes and schemes appropriate to the needs of businesses in the south of Scotland, including Dumfries and Galloway, and in accordance with the rules governing the Structural Funds.

  The Programme Complement, which sets out the detail of the programme, includes a comprehensive Communications Action Plan, which provides for the Programme Management Executive to publicise the benefits of structural funds to a range of bodies including trade organisations and businesses.

Fisheries

Tavish Scott (Shetland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in relation to the initiative on the future of the fisheries sector and its affiliated industries announced on 20 December 2000 and when this work will be completed.

Rhona Brankin: A group comprising representatives of the Scottish Executive, the Scottish Enterprise Network and the Seafish Industry Authority has been established. We intend that there should be initial consultation with the industry beginning this month. I would expect the work to be finished early next year.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to strengthen the law in order to enable stray animals to be disposed of more quickly during the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Ross Finnie: New legislation came into force on 21 April 2001 (The Foot and Mouth Disease (Scotland) (Declaratory and Controlled Area) Amendment (No.4) Order 2001). This allows an inspector, on finding a stray animal, to detain it and if the owner cannot be ascertained after reasonable enquiries, arrangements can be made to have the animal destroyed.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total financial impact of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak will be on the economy of Dumfries and Galloway.

Ross Finnie: The Scottish Executive has established an Impact Assessment Group to identify the impact foot-and-mouth disease is having across sectors and areas. A local impact assessment group in Dumfries and Galloway – which includes Scottish Enterprise Dumfries and Galloway, the council, the area tourist board, and other local organisations – is feeding into the national group. To date the complexities involved in estimating the impact mean this remains work in progress. The final impact will depend on the ultimate scale and duration of the outbreak and for this reason the eradication of foot-and-mouth disease remains the Executive’s highest priority.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial impact the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak will have on the tourist industry of Dumfries and Galloway.

Mr Alasdair Morrison: The Scottish Executive has established an Impact Assessment Group to identify the impact foot-and-mouth disease is having across sectors and areas. Given the complexities involved in making impact assessments this remains work in progress. Initial results illustrate that many tourism businesses in Dumfries and Galloway have been affected with cancellations and reduced enquiries.

  However, the final impact will be dependent on the eventual scale and duration of the disease and for this reason, eradication of FMD remains the highest priority for the Executive.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has conducted into any risks to human health posed by the smoke from animals being burned due to the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Rhona Brankin: Monitoring of local air quality is a local authority responsibility. Dumfries and Galloway Council, with technical support from the Scottish Executive, are carrying out such monitoring in their area, related to the emissions from pyres.

General Practitioners

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans for a review of primary care, in particular general practice.

Susan Deacon: The Scottish Executive has embarked on a wide range of initiatives in primary care. These include the development of LHCCs, the launch of NHS24, Personal Medical Services schemes and an action plan for primary care dental services. Plans have also been announced in Caring for Scotland the Strategy for Nursing and Midwifery for Scotland to pilot the WHO Family Health Nursing model as a way of strengthening primary care services in remote and rural areas. Malcolm Chisholm and I have recently met with the leaders of all the professional groups involved in primary care including general medical practice. The Executive recognises the valuable work of general medical practitioners throughout Scotland in the delivery of primary care. There are no plans for a separate review of general medical practice in Scotland. The Executive is, however, committed to bringing forward proposals for the development of LHCCs in the coming months.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the recommendation in the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network publication Hypertension in Older People that all people over 75 who have an annual health check should have a blood pressure check is implemented.

Susan Deacon: The objective of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of clinical care for patients in Scotland by developing, publishing and disseminating guidelines which identify and promote good clinical practice on the basis of the best evidence we have. SIGN guidelines are distributed widely and all doctors are expected to comply with Good Practice advice.

  Under the statutory terms of service for general practitioners, a GP is required to invite each patient aged 75 and over for an annual health check. The purpose of the consultation is to assess whether the GP needs to render personal medical services to the patient. Although any action is determined by the clinical judgment of the GP, it is likely that this will involve measuring a patient’s blood pressure.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that GPs conduct an annual health check on all people over the age of 75.

Susan Deacon: The statutory terms of service for general practitioners require that each patient over the age of 75 is invited each year to participate in a consultation. Any breach of the terms of service is a matter for the relevant Primary Care Trust or Island Health Board.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to introduce a screening system for chlamydia in young women in response to recent research carried out by the University of Edinburgh which found that 8% of women under 20 were infected.

Malcolm Chisholm: The UK National Screening Committee (on which the Executive is represented) is due to consider the final Report of the evaluation of a chlamydia screening pilot project in England in summer 2001. On the basis of the conclusions reached by the evaluation, the Committee will make a recommendation on the merits or otherwise of a national screening programme for chlamydia. The research by Edinburgh University will also help inform decisions about the introduction of such a programme in Scotland.

  The national health demonstration project, Healthy Respect, will pilot chlamydia testing in a range of settings to help achieve its headline targets to increase the reported cases of chlamydia amongst young people by 2003 through raised awareness. That will be followed by the long term target of a 50% decrease in reported prevalence by 2010.

Hospitals

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has assessed the social and economic impact which would result in the event of Migdale Hospital, Sutherland closing.

Susan Deacon: The provision of community health services in Sutherland is a matter for Highland Health Board and the Highland Primary Care Trust. There is at present no suggestion that Migdale Hospital will close.

Infectious Salmon Anaemia

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made in controlling and eliminating infectious salmon anaemia and whether any further policy measures are being formulated in this connection.

Rhona Brankin: All of the 11 confirmed farms and most of the 24 suspect farms have been restocked following clearance, disinfection and fallowing. There have been no confirmed cases since May 1998 and no suspect cases since November 1999.

  If further confirmed cases arise, the changes we have secured to EC and domestic legislation will enable us to vary the rate at which farms are cleared of fish according to the level of disease present and the threat to other farms. Also, at the request of the Commission, we have drafted proposals for the statutory diagnosis of ISA which includes a new provision for lifting suspicion from farms.

Landfill

Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to carry out investigations into the content of landfill sites which were used prior to the introduction in 1974 of a requirement for records to be kept.

Rhona Brankin: There are none. However, I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-14984 on 26 April 2001.

Landfill

Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans there are to decontaminate any landfill sites affected by chemical pollution.

Rhona Brankin: There are none. At present landfill sites are regulated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) under the Waste Management Licensing Regulations (WMLR) 1994 which ensures that landfill sites do not pollute the environment.

Millennium Commission

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications for Millennium Commission funding there have been from each (a) parliamentary region and (b) parliamentary constituency, specifying the percentage of successful applications in each case.

Allan Wilson: The Millennium Commission’s database cannot provide applications data in the format requested.

Multiple Sclerosis

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made or will make to Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the higher incidence of multiple sclerosis in Scotland, regarding the implications for multiple sclerosis sufferers of any delay by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in assessing drugs and technologies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Susan Deacon: Regular meetings take place between the Scottish Executive, the Department of Health, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence and the Health Technology Board for Scotland. Progress on the assessment of technologies for the treatment of multiple sclerosis is reviewed at these meetings.

  The recent decision to develop a new economic model for the assessment of beta interferon is part of a process to ensure that the advice to be made available later this year is the product of the most objective and scientifically robust methodology possible.

Scottish Executive Consultation

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when the consultation paper on the proposed Title Conditions Bill will be published and how long the consultation period will be.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive’s Title Conditions (Scotland) Bill Consultation Paper is published today. The paper is based upon, and contains a copy of, the draft Title Conditions Bill appended to the Scottish Law Commission’s Report on Real Burdens (Scot Law Com 181), which was published on 26 October 2000. I would like to commend the Scottish Law Commission for their report, which covers a very complex and difficult area of law reform in a thorough and imaginative way.

  The Bill will mark the second stage in the Property Law Reform Programme commenced by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000. It will reform and clarify the law relating to non-feudal conditions and burdens on land which remain following the abolition of the feudal system.

  Copies of the consultation paper will be sent to the relevant parliamentary committees and be available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre. Further copies will be available from Iain Hockenhull, Scottish Executive Justice Department: Branch 5, Spur V/1, Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD, telephone 0131 244 8228, or email iain.hockenhull@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.

  A 12-week consultation period will follow, with the closing date for responses being Monday, 23 July 2001.

Scottish Qualifications Authority

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when the markers recruited by the Scottish Qualifications Authority will receive the scripts from the 2001 examination diet for marking.

Mr Jack McConnell: This is a matter for the Scottish Qualifications Authority. I have asked the Chairman to write to Mr Monteith.

Scottish Qualifications Authority

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when markers are due to return the examination scripts from the 2001 examination diet to the Scottish Qualifications Authority.

Mr Jack McConnell: This is a matter for the Scottish Qualifications Authority. I have asked the Chairman to write to Mr Monteith.

Staff Training

Mike Watson (Glasgow Cathcart) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any disability awareness training is available to its staff and, if so, whether this includes any specific training on epilepsy awareness.

Angus MacKay: Disability awareness training is available to all staff within the Scottish Executive. The Corporate Induction programme includes training in equal opportunities, including disability awareness. In addition we provide disability awareness training on a regular basis, have a wide range of material relating to disability in the learning resource centres and provide guidance on disability issues on the Scottish Executive intranet. Detailed training on epilepsy awareness has not been provided but issues relating to epilepsy may be raised within the wider disability awareness training.

Transport

Tavish Scott (Shetland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made on the review of the tariff rebate subsidy scheme for livestock shipments to and from the Northern Isles and when this review will be completed.

Sarah Boyack: The Executive received recently the report of an evaluation of the Tariff Rebate Subsidy Scheme for bulk and livestock shipping conducted by EKOS consultants. The evaluation report is being considered in detail. Ministers will announce their conclusions on the review in due course.

Tuberculosis

Brian Adam (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were vaccinated against tuberculosis in each of the last five years.

Malcolm Chisholm: Figures are available centrally for the routine immunisation programme for school children only. The number of such children reported as vaccinated against tuberculosis in the years ending 30 June 1995 to 1999 were:

  


Year 
  

1995 
  

1996 
  

1997 
  

1998 
  

1999 
  



Scotland 
  

31,119 
  

62,174 
  

47,786 
  

48,754 
  

46,389 
  



  Source: Common Services Agency, Information and Statistics Division.

  A national shortage of BCG vaccine and the measles/rubella campaign resulted in a limited school BCG programme throughout Scotland in 1995.

  The following questions received holding answers:

  S1W-14979

  S1W-14983